The Adventure Zone - Setup - The Adventure Zone: Dust

Episode Date: February 22, 2018

Travis takes the wheel as we create our characters for our next mini-arc, The Adventure Zone: Dust! We're playing the supernatural RPG Urban Shadows this time around. Listen in to get a brief primer on the game, our characters, and the unincorporated, Wild West-inspired town of Dry River. Happy MaxFunDrive! Right now is the best time to start a membership to support your favorite shows. Learn more and join at https://maximumfun.org/jointaz

Walk us and traff. Take us out, Captain. Let's go. Roll for initiative. Roll that beautiful bean footage. Roll your balls. That's a reference that only people who I think went to the Pub and Family Fun Center in the West Virginia will get. Hi, welcome to the first episode of the Adventure Zone Dust. I can taste it. I can taste the dust in my mouth. Dust.

Oh, oh, God. It's a double entendre because, one, is taking place in the dusty old west, but two, in the context of like ashes to ashes and dust to dust, it begins with a murder. Dun, dumb. I love this part of any fiction. I love my favorite part is the first paragraph for The Stand when Stephen King's like, this book is called The Stand, because later, in the book, some good people will take a stand against bad people. Get it? Get it?

Anyway, on with the story. This is how the prologue of every good story begins. Let me tell you why I'll pick this title. Hi, I'm Travis. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. There were two cities, and this is the story of them and how they did their thing. This is their tale. All right, if we're done with all the fun and games.

There's a little orphan later in the story. He shows up soon. His name is Oliver Twist, and this book is about him. You're going to love him. You're going to love his whole thing. He's a real rascal. He's a rascal. And he doesn't believe in Christmas.

Wait. Oliver Twist doesn't believe in Christmas? Yeah, it's all part of the same universe. So Oliver Twist grows up to be Aberdeenzer Scrooge? Yes, absolutely. Travis, will you please tell us about the adventure? Yes. So, to start off with, a little more background.

So originally I talked about. creating my own game system for this. And then what I learned was, that's really fucking hard. There are people who work for years and years and years, and they only do the one thing, and still, then they playtest it for years and years after that. I wanted to believe in you and nurture that flame,

but there was an element of hubris. You say, yeah, I'll just make my own. It's like, but this is a hard, it's an extremely hard thing. Well, because then I started to think, like, they want to do this. And I was like, man, I don't know. And so instead, I set out to look for a game system preexisting. And I really, really like the power by the apocalypse monster of the week that we've

been doing for Amnesty. And so at first I started off thinking about that. But then the problem was a monster of the week, as the name implies, builds to like fighting a big monster in each arc. And that's not really what I had in mind for this. And so I started looking for other versions. of power by the apocalypse. And what I found is a game system called Urban Shadows. We should really drive home because I feel like on paper, it may sound like this is going to be kind of a similar thing because Urban Shadows also has a lot of like monster-centric stuff in it, but really a cursory look at the two systems and their genre and the rules

and the focuses of the different game, the foci, they could not be more different. Yeah, you'll hear some of the same terms, like, the same way of, if you roll, you know, a two to six or a seven to nine or a ten to twelve, that kind of thing, and like adding one to roll. You'll hear a lot of the same terminology, but Urban Shadow's really, so originally the one thing I knew right off the top of, of my head when thinking about an arc is I wanted it to be based around the interactions of vampires, werewolves, and humans, not as like, you know, monsters versus hunters, but more as, like, people who didn't see eye to eye and get along, and, like, that there was, like, tension between them, not, like, one hunts the other, but just, like, as they passed each other in the street, there was tension.

and so what's great about Urban Shadows is that's what it is. So Urban Shadows, the driving kind of mechanic is factions. And the other driving force in Urban Shadows is debt. So the way it works is if you do something for someone and both players or the MC and the player agree that that is like worthy of a debt, that person then owes you something that you can call in and they, either have to do it or risk taking a penalty if they refuse to honor the debt. And all that stuff is tangible game mechanics. Like these are numerical values that you add to like critical roles. So it's

so much more about the interpersonal interactions and connections than it is about fighting. And on top of that, what I really love is that unlike D&D and I would also say fate and and Monster the Week, this is really kind of ready for player versus player disagreements and conflict. So like you don't have to get along.

And in fact, the start of every session begins with the MC asking each player, which character does your character distrust the most? And so it's all about like not necessarily

getting along. You can still all be working towards the same goal and still work together, but the idea that just like you're inherently friends because you work together is just not really the way it always worked. And so I just love, I think the interactions, the mechanics, but also like the characters and the setup feels very different to me than any of the arcs we played so far. And so I'm really looking forward to that.

Here's what I want. This is not, as Griffin pointed out to me other day, my goal here is not to be grim dark. It's not like everybody's so super broody and nasty to each other and filled with hate. It's just more tense, you know, like, for example, right? A lot of times in balance, we would, you know, kind of goof with, like the player characters would make a joke to an NBC that if you said to someone in real, life would offend them or like make the, make the conversation go pretty south pretty quickly. But we rolled with it because we were joking, right? And I think that that's going to be a little different in this because it's so about

interpersonal interactions that, like, if you're trying to get information from someone and you make a joke about their, you know, the way they're dressed or something. Their voice or their shiny bow tie or how they weigh spell slots. That's going to be less, they are then going to be less willing to give you the information. What if it's a very, okay, but what if it's a very funny joke? Well, then that's the thing. I'm not saying you can't joke. I just think that use it as a resource, you know what I mean?

Aren't you penalizing me for trying to make our comedy podcast funnier then? Yes. Okay, good. That's what the folks, these arcs are limited. I do want to remind you just a few episodes of the one that's intentionally not funny. Well, you know, humor is different for different people. Maybe some people will find it funny that I penalize you for making a joke. That would be funny to me.

I will enjoy that moment. And so that's the thing. I don't want it to sound like I'm going to make this dark and no one's going to have fun. But it's more like it's just a little grittier. It's a little more westerny, you know? I don't want it to be as lighthearted, but I'm also not trying to depress everyone with this. I'm just trying to be a little bit more realistic in the interactions that y'all have with each other and with the players, with the non-playable characters. So, Griffin, you've done this more times than me.

What else do I need to tell people about this? I mean, as long as we're talking about tone, we should address kind of the elephant in the room of interpreting and incorporating, like, real world. old Wild West sort of social issues, which is something that I think you've been very thoughtful of while sort of crafting this? Yeah. So in preparation for this arc, you know, I thought a lot about the Wild West and historically what life would be like as far as like the social issues and incredible, massive amounts of racism and misogyny that would be present.

And, you know, I saw a lot of people when I talked about doing the Old West kind of arc and they were made uncomfortable by that concept. And you know what? So am I. And I don't mean uncomfortable like I didn't want to discuss it or that I want to pretend like it didn't happen. But more so is that I've seen from a lot of people that this show is an escape for them. And we try our best to like make worlds that are inclusive and not filled with rampant racism and misogyny, even though that was sort of the case back in the way. Wild West. Like, rubber hits the road. Like, I don't want to be interacting with racist and massages NPCs, and I don't think that the listeners necessarily want that either. Yeah. So, this is going to be

a world inspired by designed after, but not actually the Old West. So it's not set in our world. And I think that that also tracks because our world doesn't have vampires and werewolves and demons and ghosts that we know. I'm glad we went to the same place. All right. And another thing we talked about is not, because this is another sort of problematic trope that pops up whenever you do supernatural drama stuff like this is treating relations between different supernatural things like vampires and werewolves as an allegory or a parallel to racism, which is, I think, pretty dismissive of very serious and very real problems that deal like. people deal with day to day and that is also not like what we're doing the way i've heard you described is like this is about sort of families yeah this is way more hotfield and mccoy this is

like like the blackwells run the copper mine the math is run the silver mine um so like they're competing business interests they both have pretty equal like areas of the town they run and it's really and i'll get into this when i intro it but it's really that this town is on the decline. And so there's all this tension that just comes from that. Yeah. So it all comes down to like the families don't like each other. And because these families don't like each other, the factions have naturally split into the people who side with each family. So it's not necessarily like the entire race of werewolves in this world we've created and the entire race of vampires don't like each other. It is specifically these two families, you know, and how they interact. Because

that's the thing. What I love about urban shadows is it gets down to like how individuals interact with each other. And as the only one of us who was alive back during the Wild West, I think it's a good choice, a good choice. So let's talk a little bit more about the world, both of Urban Shadows and specifically the town of Dry River, which is where we were playing. So dry, how does a river get dry? Well, we'll talk about that in the course of the show. And so Dry River is in the Crescent territory. Originally, the Crescent River, now the Crescent Ravine. And so it's this kind of unincorporated territory. And so one of the things about Urban Shadows is you're dealing with kind of power struggles. And it's kind of originally Urban Shadows is kind of built to be in like,

a big city. And in fact, the book encourages you like, you can use real cities if you want or create your own. So you can set it in like Chicago or you can create your own world. I mean, it's called urban shadows. It's not called rural old timey shadows. Right. And so rather than just have kind of this individual town of like a thousand people, I've created a territory, think more of like a state. So all of them are very connected. So there's like, mining interests and criminal organizations that kind of thrive in this unincorporated territory. So rather than thinking like city, I'm thinking of it more as like a territory. And I worked with Brendan from Magpie Games who makes Urban Shadows to kind of make sure I wasn't breaking the

system at all with this. And so like we talked about connecting these and making sure there were still these power systems of like the workers versus the money. mining owners, the criminal organizations versus some kind of lawkeeping body. And so making sure that there was still something to push against for all these different people and factions and that kind of thing. Because otherwise, it's just chaos. And that's not as interesting. So yeah, let's talk a little bit about characters and what they mean. So a lot of the archetypes you'll see It's the same in like, listen, as I flip through my giant RPG binder, you'll see a lot of the same kind of archetypes as there are in D&D and Monster of the Week and even some similar ones in fate.

Do you boys want to tell me about your characters, or do you want me to go through some of the basic archetypes for it? It's worth mentioning that the archetypes are divided into the four factions, which are, what is it, mortal. Yeah, so it's mortality, night, power, and wild. And so mortality is like your human hunters or you're aware. So aware is like they know something's going on, but they don't have any inherently skills. So they're kind of your like, they keep their eyes open and they can tell you about stuff they saw. They're well researched, but without any like inherent fighting abilities. So you have like your aware, hunter, veteran mortals, right? And then in your night, that's where you get your

your vampires, your werewolves. And then in your power, that is someone who has taken on power. So like an oracle or a wizard. And then in wild, that's where you get like your tainted who are in league with demons or Faye, who are these like, you know, the Faye fairy creatures. And so if you're in those factions, you inherently get along better. So another interesting thing about urban shadows that makes it really great for storytelling is it gives you a lot of the big points. You know, like this is a vampire. This is what they can do. This is a werewolf.

This is what they can do. This is someone who's tainted with demon. This is what they can do. But as far as the like supernatural lore, it leaves a lot of room to fill in, right? So for our story, vampire, vamporism and like lecantthropy are hereditary. And so they are vampire families and where we're, families, and it's not about being turned, it is genetic. So, like, if you have a werewolf parent and a human parent, they are co-dominant genes,

so it's 50-50 chance the child will be a werewolf. In this world, can you still turn somebody, or is that just, like, not how it works? I think that it's not how it works unless, you know what I mean? Because when we're talking about there are wizards, there are fay creatures, there are demons, I don't want to rule anything out because the possibility of person. Most of them were born into it, is what you're saying. Yeah. But that genetic mutation had to start somewhere.

You know what I mean? Dracula. Let's start with Dracula. It had to start with Dracula. So, yeah. So, and a lot of that also, that's about the only decision I've made. And then pass that when we're creating characters, I'm probably going to ask you questions. Like, so how does it work as far as this?

and you will help fill in as the creator of these characters help fill in the supernatural lore as we go. Okay. So I think we danced around it long enough. Why don't we start? Justin, do you want to tell me about your character? Sure. I'd love to, Traff. Then please do.

Well, then I'll will. Here comes. Okay, fine. Do it. Coward? Okay, Justin, your turn. What's wrong, baby? You scared like a baby?

My turn is starting now. I am playing, which it seems predetermined, considering our lives at this point. I'm playing a ghost, um, whose name is Augustus Parsons. Now, did I realize when I picked the name Augustus

that it sounds like a ghost? I did not. Okay, I did not put that together. Thank you so much. But, a ghost us. That'll be the name of your clothing line. That is what, that is where we find. ourselves. He is the, um, was the, uh, boss, the chief executive officer of the Augustus Parsons

cashew company. And he was, uh, an industrial magnate who, uh, died, uh, through mysterious circumstances. And he is trapped here on earth. And he was a very, he was not a good person. He was a bad person, as many wealthy industrialists are, I guess, just like all of us. They're good and bad. But he is trapped here on earth. And the way Travis and I talked about it is that this sort of agency or what have you that we are a part of, he is bound into service to them to make up for the wickedness that he did during his life. Now, as far as that goes, Jayman, is it like once he's ticked enough boxes or is it just like, there is no predetermined... Let's a fucking show you guys reference all the time that nobody's ever watched, the 99 deeds of...

What's his face? Oh, yeah. Where he had to save 100 souls or 99 souls? The 100 lives of Blackjack Savage, my friends. 100 lives of Blackjack Savage. You could also relate it to Cupid with Paramage-Jivins, when... or Paramie Jimins had to get 100 couples together. Let's not make that the anchor.

Okay. We'll stick with 100 bucks in Black Jack Savage. Yeah, it's much more relatable. It's nothing finite because I don't think, I think that that would imply that he could somehow balance, like what he did in his mortal life. I think that the deal is much more ephemeral than that. He assumes that he will be released at some point,

but he doesn't have, like, a meter. I can't wait to hear... Somebody should meet her. I can't wait to hear what kind of sins that really hard-nosed cashew business requires for folks to get ahead. You wouldn't believe it. It's nuts. Oh, Jesus. See, there's still jokes?

Yeah, there's still going to be jokes. And it's all going to be sort of nut cashew-based humor. The main reason that he... When you create a character, a specter, there's questions you need to answer. Um, who are you? Check. Uh, who do you still love? I still love my cashew company.

And that is something that I'm still very preoccupied with. Uh, I'm thinking a lot about how the business is being run. Uh, and I'm, I'm like trying to keep an eye on the business while I, uh, also, um, slam evil as the phantom. Uh-huh. Uh, once instructed us to see it. Oh, man. It's like undercover boss. Um, it's a lot like,

undercover boss. Invisible. Invisible boss. He's under is a bed sheet with eye holes cut out. Yeah. Invisible boss. And he also has a daughter. He was not a, this will come to shock. He was not a great father in his life. His name, his daughter's name is Anna Cardium Parsons. And she is in the care of Travis, sorry, you text. to me the church, sorry, in the care of the church. So he can't necessarily, I think that, like, it is unpleasant for him to sort of check up on her, that being a church and it being like a lot of, it's sort of like a weird vibe for a ghost, I think, to hang out in. Except for the Holy Ghost. Yes, the Holy Ghost and Jesus Christ, of course, were permitted within the church. The church is like the church body.

You know what I mean? So it's not like a specific building, but more of like the governing church body in this unincorporated territory is the church. Right? So someone works for the church. You know what I mean? Think that kind of thing rather than, oh, I'm going to go to the church. It's, ah, he works for the church. Right. And also, yes, and also because they are providing for the welfare of his daughter, he owes them two debts. So I don't know, Trav, if you want to think of that as like a certain person in the church that he owes two debts to or just the entity itself. I don't know what makes the best fit. I would say that for the purposes of this territory spread out, that it is the entity of the church, you owe two debts. You know what I mean? That it's like the church can call in. And maybe that's they call in. So the organization that you all three are agents of is, I'm calling it the Grayson agency.

And it's very much like the Pinkerton. if anyone's familiar with that, where they are kind of detectives slash arbiters slash muscle for hire. They are not necessarily a law keeping. They are not, not even necessarily. They are not a law keeping organization. It is bodyguards or whatever you need. And so you are all agents of that. So maybe it's like the church could call in the debt with the Grayson agency to have you investigate something.

or the church, a member of, a representative of the church could specifically call in that favor from you. And I have named some organizations of people after listener, the Grayson agency is named after Grayson Berg. Not any, because some people, I wanted to leave the option that maybe they are bad villain type people, and I didn't want to name bad villain type people. You referenced the Pinkertons, and we should probably clear up that we're not going to be doing any union. union busting in this game. I think that also goes against the ethos of what we're going for. No, no, no, no. No union breaking.

Cool. So, Justin, a couple other questions that go along with the character creation. How long have you been in the territory and with the Gray Sons? Five years I've been. I mean, the cashier company is in the territory. So I've been in the territory my whole life. It's old money. But I have been dead, I think, five years.

Okay. Sounds about right. So I've been with the Gray since five years. So then how old is Anna? She is 12. He's a bad father, yeah. And that doesn't magically get fixed because he's a ghost. Let's face it, cashews are easy to love.

Cushes are easy to love. So delicious. Is there a movie about a ghost that's trying to be a good ghost dad? So he's not a ghost dad. Jack Frost. Jack Frost, thank you. There might be a lot of movies about it. The shining.

The shining. In both those examples, except for The Shining, it does magically turn you into a good dad. Okay, so this is a ghost dad scenario in many senses of the word. Who is your closest confidant in the territory? So I don't really, man, I haven't really thought that way because I've kind of seen him as somebody who's kind of apart from it. Well, can I make a suggestion just from what you've given me so far, is who took over the cashew company that, that, that, Augustus is maybe most in contact with as far as like, so Confidon, I think for Augustus maybe doesn't mean tells their deepest target secrets, but maybe the person that they still feel

most connected to, and that they interact with the most. So was there somebody who took over the cashew company when Augustus passed? Yes, Garrett Altizer. And he's, he hates his guts. He thinks he's an absolute ninkgo poop. If he had known he was going to die, he would have created some sort of session plan to some of the more competent people. But Garrett Altizer is the one who's sort of like ascended to running it. And he is the main person that he is haunting to try to make him do a better job. Was Garrett kind of like a yes man that Augustus kept around?

Yes. Yes. Yes, exactly. Garrett is not unlike a Smithers type. But he does not. he, except that Smithers, I think, would do a very competent job. And maybe Garrett Altizer is doing a competent job, but in the views of Augustus, he is incompetent. Last question, and then we'll talk about like the moves that Augustus gets.

But last question. Oh, yeah, he's got lots of cool moves. What do you desperately need? What I desperately need is to return my corporeal form and take control of my cash-you company. barring that, I guess, release from my spectral prison. So at least I don't have to see Altizer run my precious jewel of a company into the ground. So, who wants to go next? Do you don't want to talk about your sick moves?

Yeah, I'll blow through it real quick because it's kind of pretty ghost-like. And maybe tell us a little bit about the demeanor and looks and stuff as well. So in the character creation process, it gives you options on. on like your look and your demeanor for you to pick from. So I chose male and Caucasian. And that's kind of boring because that's what I am. So that's how I kind of roll. But I thought since he's like not a great dad,

seem like kind of yucky. Sure. To pick a different race to depict him. And also like he's an evil industrialist, which is probably a white guy, right? I mean, probably, I would guess. So that's what we're going with. the demeanor here is

antiquated. I think that that's probably the best, like, you know, sort of, at least socially speaking, a gentleman, you know, as those things go. Um, that's sort of his, his thing. I think of him is like, he was definitely in his like late 60s with like,

uh, think like frock coat, like really dressed the nines. He's somebody who was very, uh, put together and, and focused very much on his appearance, craggy, angular, sort of sort of dude. So that's how I sort of

envisioned him. His cool powers are one is he can manifest so he can choose to be two of these heard, seen, or can touch or be touched.

I have to choose two. If I want to choose one or three, I have to take a corruption point. Now that's at a time. As I understand it, so this isn't like something you have to predeterminate. now. No, in each situation, I have to choose which of those two I can be. That is such a fucking cool way to do ghosts in a game. It's really cool. The other abilities I've chosen

are one is called ghost town. And that means I can go hang out with ghosts to try to find more information. And I feel like he finds them contemptible. But you know, they're a useful resource from time to time. And then the other one is a wall, what wall? He always has the option to escape. Great. And then along.

I can choose an additional option off the list to bring somebody with me for that, but I think it's mainly just him being able to leave. You also, so another cool thing about Urban Shadows is like you have your basic news, Oh, by the way, last thing, if I fail that role, that escape role, it attracts the attention of dangerous spirits and ghosts in the area. Yep. Fuck, yeah. So you also have drama moves. So there's a- Johnny drama moves.

Johnny drama moves. There is a concept in urban shadows called corruption. And so basically corruption is anytime you let your character slip closer to the darker inner parts of their nature, they get a little bit more corrupt. And if they get fully corrupted, they retire from your control to my control as a danger to the city. So good. And so if you give into the darker part of your nature and allow corruption to happen, then I get to keep you. What's awesome is that before you get to that point where your character becomes an NPC threat, you actually get more powerful. You get other, you get new powers because that's...

This is something that video games fuck up so much of, like, the good and evil slider, where it's just like, oh, yeah, you can, are you going to rob this person, or are you going to, you know, help them out? Either way, you're going to get this cool sword. And it's like, well, then it doesn't fucking, it doesn't matter as much. Like, Bioshock did this a lot, right? Or it's like, do you want to harvest the little girl for her magic energy, or do you want to save her? no matter what, you're going to end up getting like cool powers and stuff like that. When really like if you do

the evil thing, there's a reason behind it and it's because you're pursuing some sort of power in some way. And this game is like, yeah, you get more powerful and more powerful and more powerful and more powerful and then you become an enemy. And that's really cool. Yeah, he gets like the ability to possess people and stuff like that the more corrupt. I'm going to be, he's going to go pretty corrupt pretty quick is kind of my plan. And so what do you, what happens, what is the corruption

move of a specter. The specter corruption drama move is when I see someone being victimized and do nothing, I mark a corruption. So good. There's also, along with corruption moves, there are also intimacy moves where if you have a moment of intimacy and maybe that's romantic or maybe it's just a

close conversation or whatever, whatever we determine in play is an intimacy moment, then each different archetype gets a different intimacy move that they can then use. Um, my, uh, my intimacy move is, uh, it's really cool actually. When I have a moment of intimacy with someone, um, I hold one.

And whenever they get into trouble, I can spend my hold to instantly go to where they are. It's like Al from, from quantum, exactly. It's very, it's my, it's my Ziggy move. Um, and then we also have, you know, a bunch of standards stuff. And we'll talk more about advances and everything when we get to it. But this is a, this is a little bit crunchier of a game than Monster the Week was. So I don't think we need to go. Um, and then. Um, and then Monster the week was. So I don't think we need to go. Um, go into like every we'll get to them when we get to them um yeah i'm just trying it's trying to okay so who wants to go next dad you want to you gonna do it sure yeah um who are you oh oh oh what what faction is the specter oh i mean it's not really a certain faction no but it says it says a member of blank uh well he would technically be knight okay all right sorry dad No, that's all right. My character is called Gandy Dancer.

I did not know this was a thing until you explained it. I did my research, man. Yeah, you're a real nerd. Her parents were workers on the Ocean to Ocean Railroad. The old OTO. The old OTO. The OTO. And there was an accident, which they were killed.

But in very heroic fashion, they saved about a dead. dozen of their co-workers and they both died. Yes, that's typically what happens when people are killed. And so, well, to be fair, this is a world with like specters and stuff. Yeah, that is a fair point, Travis, I did not consider ghosts. And you know what? Put an asterisk next to that. Maybe that's something we want to go back to.

The option's always there. You know what I mean? So, Emil Moshe, who was the head of the, of the OTO, the, the, of the, of the, of the OTO, the, the multi... Did you name this person after your own middle name? I actually named this person after my own great-grandfather, whose name was Emil Mosh. Now, I do want to point out, I specifically made the choice

not to name characters that might end up being jerks after our listeners, but you just went ahead. Oh, I don't... I don't know if he was a jerk or not. I don't think... But he could be. He could be. You don't know if your grandfather was a jerk or not.

Okay, that's fair. Great grandfather. My grandfather was great. Anyway, Moche, partly maybe for PR, partly to be a sound business decision, Moshe has sort of taken her under his wing and has agreed to like pay for anything for her life to. Now, let's clarify that though. Yeah. You say take it, is that like he has had direct influence?

No. No, no. He's created a bank roll. He's buying off. Yeah, it's a legal settlement. It's a legal settlement. It's a PR move. It's just good business.

But I don't want to completely make Emil sound like a complete dufus. I mean, I think there was actually some gratitude on his part for their heroics. But for the most part, it's like a settlement. It's to get good publicity. And at the same time, take care of this child. She's a wizard. So I guess that puts her in the power. She's in power.

Yeah. Right. And she has traveled the world studying everything she could about magic. She's obsessed with the arcane. She's collected books and artifacts learning every possible thing that she could. They call her Gandhi dancer because when her parents were killed, the other workers didn't know her name. They named her Gandy Dancer.

For one thing, Gandy Dancer is somebody that worked on the railroads. So now she has come back and the railroads, she loves the railroads. So she came back. She worked for a while as an agent on the railroads. And then she got this job. How long have you been in the territory and with the Graysons? I think she's been with the Graysons for a couple. of years. Are the Grayson's based in Dry River? Is that what you said? They are based in the Crescent

territory, yes. I would say that she's been working the territory for maybe a year. So does she have to be familiar with the actual town? No. No, I think she's really new to the town. She's on an assignment. Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. I think it's fascinating having somebody who's like a world traveler who is here who probably just sees it as just another stop, like another pin in the Yeah, it's kind of a gig to her. I mean, because her job is really not her primary drive. I mean... It's just a means to an end.

Right. So what keeps you up at night? She's absolutely terrified of death. Relatable. She is... Too real. She is obsessed with it after... I mean, because she saw her parents, whether it was heroic or not...

Even as an infant, it stuck with her? Oh, I think something. like that stuck with her. Yeah. Is she trying to beat it? Yeah. I like that. Let's go ahead and jump to what do you desperately need then.

So what is, is that her main drive and ambition? She wants to beat death. She wants to, that's why she's studying magic. She wants, she wants to be immortal. She is, that's why she is so obsessed with magic. That's why she's so obsessed with the arcane. She is, she is going to, Beat it. She's going to live forever. Fame. She's going to live forever.

Is there anyone that Gandhi is close to? Well, one of the things about wizards is they have what's called a sanctum, sanctorum. Uh-huh. And I decided to make hers kind of mobile. There's no rail service, I guess, to dry river. No. So she has this Black Mariah, which was a police vehicle, a great big, rolling a paddy wagon a paddy wagon

yeah and so she's converted this patty wagon like in carriage form yeah right and this paddy wagon is uh is her sanctum sanctorum and she's it's loaded up with all of her arcane artifacts and everything else

and it's horse drawn and the sanctum sanctorum allows you to have a very knowledgeable assistant so she has this her assistant is a haunted doll fantastic homunculus they call them

and and his name is Michael and Michael is her coachman too he drives the horses but he's like this repository of arcane knowledge dresses in robes from the Italian Renaissance.

Well, so let me ask you this then, keeping in mind that these are real things in this world, is it a ghost of a person that isn't happening in this doll or a demonic spirit? I don't know. I don't know. Does Gandy know? Oh, yeah, Gandy knows. Okay. Well, you created the Gandy.

I would say probably... Dad, you're out there when she doesn't. Demon. I'd say it's possessed by a demon. Excellent. I'm curious to hear the moves, because this is like the third magic user that we've had across the different campaigns. I'm wondering how. I've never really used a magic user.

I don't count. I don't count Merle. Excellent. Okay. It's just nice to hear you say it. A wizard gets spells that they can use. So the wizard moves are basically channeling, which is kind of you collecting your magic, gathering your magic. And the sanctum sanctorum, using the sanctum sanctorum, is also a move.

And then you get to choose three spells. And I tried to, I picked three that I, I like balanced characters. So Gandy is going to be able to summon elementalism, which is like, the only offensive thing she has. And shielding, which I thought it might be nice to have somebody who could do some protecting. But also tracking. I thought that would be really important to what we're trying to do. And so you can track somebody to learn their location magically.

And Dad and I talked about it in creating his character where I think what we came to is in this supernatural context, like, because power specifically is different from mortal, right? So this is not a mortal human being who can do magic. This is someone who has taken on power and become different. And so what it is, is Gandhi has magic and then carries Fokai that allow her to use that magic in specific ways. Right. I didn't, I didn't want her to be an all-powerful spell slinger or anything that she wanted to come up with. She could. She basically has these three spells and they work through artifacts that she carries. Tell us dad a little bit about the wizard-specific corruption move. Oh, yeah, drama moves. The wizard corruption move is if you strike a deal with somebody dark and powerful, you've got to mark corruption. Yes. So I'm thinking that maybe well, for instance, if she uses Michael, if that's a demon, would that not make her take on? It depends. You could use him, but then if there's some kind of deal of like, well, I could tell you that,

which also I think then is another good balance where Michael doesn't just give you all the information you need. Right. It gives you, maybe you've already struck a deal for certain levels of information and certain levels of power. And you have to make a decision of how much deeper do you go. Kind of like Bob. Yeah, like Bob, right? That's another dress and file, not just so weird my friend Bob. You know, my friend Bob, but don't make deals with Bob.

What is the look? So you said that Gandhi is female. Right, she's female. She is Asian. Specifically East Asian, right? Yeah. Yeah, that's how you described her to us earlier. It's weird that's like not in the list for character creation in this game, but I think it would behoove us to be a little bit more specific.

And, you know, I think she has really embraced the investigator, the, you know, I think she would dress in dark colors. I think, you know, in variations of standard Western wear, like maybe. So in the options, archaic clothing, comfortable clothing, dark clothing, fancy clothing. I'd go dark, but at the same time, I think she would dress, you know, with, pants and a, you know, a cool vest and maybe a duster, although we just used a duster. I will write down cool vest, but you're going to have to prove to me that such a thing exists. Mr. James West on the while, while, last. If you're about to jump on Twitter to tell me about how cool your vest is, that was a joke.

I own vest too. Yeah. Vests are great. Just a little friendly ribbon between my dad and I. Can I talk about mine now? Real quick, because it just occurred to me, I haven't mentioned this yet. So in Monster the Week, to compare it, you level up your character when you fail a bunch, right?

So if you fail enough, you get to level up. One of the things that they do in Urban Shadows to encourage you to deal with other factions outside of your own and make faction moves is every time you interact with a faction, you get to mark that faction. And when you fill up all four of them, that's how you more or less level up your character. And so it really drives you to play more with the interactions with the other groups and interpersonal interactions. Anyways, I just thought that was a cool thing that we hadn't touched on yet. Okay, Griffin, tell me about your character. So Travis, in us creating our characters, Travis, I thought you were going to name your character, Travis. So Travis said, what an honor that would be.

Travis kind of encouraged us to try to have characters that are in these different groups, specifically werewolves and vampires. And I made my character last because I was working on finishing up Amnesty, and we didn't have one of those either. Either one of those. And so I was trying to figure out a way to do a werewolf or a vampire that would be like interesting to me. because I'm not super interested in doing something that kind of already exists in the world, like following the strict vampire or werewolf rules, even though we get to, like, tailor what those are, I didn't think would be, like, particularly satisfying.

And so what I landed on is I'm making a werewolf. The class is called The Wolf. It's a member of night. And he's a hunky teen named Jacob. No. I could. I got so excited for a second. I know. I was like, oh, yeah, now we're rocking into that next level.

No, what made it click was Travis mentioned... Make this podcast commercial. Travis mentioned that this was a game kind of about politics, and that kind of resonated with me. The idea of a werewolf pack being a political thing inherently, right? Like, they have territory that they control, and there are hierarchies of power inside of a werewolf pack and all that stuff I thought was interesting. And so I kind of blended that with my idea, which is a werewolf former politician, somebody who I think used to live in like a larger city than Dry River and was a local politician. I've done some research, and it's actually kind of tough to find.

There was not a lot of like codified political structures in small cities, especially unincorporated territories like Dry River. And so I think he was like something akin to like a city council member or an alderman, somebody who had a very hyper-localized sort of area of influence. Travis also encouraged us not to make all like purely good characters, but I liked the idea of somebody who once was a very idealistic, you know, politician, a Mr. Smith goes to Washington kind of type. but also somebody who was like very ambitious like I think my character wanted to be president one day but his sort of werewolf transformation and powers started to manifest and then that sort of became kind of a non-starter his name is Aerole Ryehaus and so so when these powers started to manifest his wolf nature started to manifest I think he wanted to stop it I think he wanted a way out because he wanted to be president and we can make this world what you want it,

but I still think he was worried about trying to be a werewolf president, right? So he tried to be fair, coming this summer, where we're president. So he tried to find a way out of it. And that is where I found what I think was interesting about this character, and it was something I had to kind of work with Travis on to make it work for the game. he sought out a magical means of reversing his lycanthropy, and it went wrong, and now he is permanently half transformed between Huber and Werewolf. He is permanently imagining Teen Wolf or, I mean any Werewolf movie, but for me, Teen Wolf

was the anchor here, that where he's starting to get a little hairy, starting to transform a little bit, and then you know like, uh-oh, it's about to go down. Except for him, it's just always about to go down. He is constantly mid-transformation. And that required kind of some tailoring of this class and how it operates. Specifically, the wolf has a whole section about the transformation where you have these latent things that you get as a benefit. You get a natural weaponry for plus two harm and one armor.

Armour is the thing in this game. It functions basically the same way as it did in Monster of the Week. So he has that stuff, but then you get to pick these other. powers where you pick two powers and two weaknesses. And because he's just always half-transformed, I think he only gets one power and one weakness. And that is that he has even more armor on top of that. He has two armor naturally. His weakness was tough for me because a lot of these were sort of geared around like, there's one that's, you can't resist the change when it comes. So the thing that I thought would be more interesting for Travis is to just lean into one sort of established piece of

werewolf lore, which is that silver weapons ignore my armor. So he is like, he's an armored character, right? And that's like his big benefit is that he's tough because he is, he's always half transformation, unless somebody knows his weakness, which is silver. And as like, as cliche as that is, like, I think it lets you do some really interesting stuff. Just to establish that piece of supernatural lore, too, in the world, why that's such a great pick is one of the hereditary traits of werewolves in this world I've created is an allergy to silver. And so for most, it manifests in different forms, just as people have different reactions to different allergies. And I love that for Aero, it's like poison. You know what I mean? It's not just like, oh, it causes a little bit of

discomfort and itching. It's like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, this is severe. Well, and everyone who has like superpowers also needs a weakness. And as literal as this is, like, I think it could be really interesting. So what's cool about the wolf class, and the reason why I thought a werewolf politician would be so interesting is you have a mechanic called your territory. And I'm using some of the same vernacular that Travis is using. My territory is not Dry River. It is an area inside of Dry River. And I think the fiction there is that he once was a local politician in his hometown. And I think despite the fact that that part of his life is kind of over, he still wants to fight for a neighborhood. And that's what his territory is, is a neighborhood.

And in sort of the game's language, it is like a werewolf territory. It is your hunting grounds. And while you are in there, you have certain benefits. And there are certain things you kind of have to watch out for while you defend that territory. But for him, it is a literal political territory. It is his neighborhood. So my territory, I get to choose some stuff.

It spans several city blocks. The people here work hard to keep the streets safe from crime, basically. And so it's like a nice part of town because of his his guardianship, his stewardship. But there is a some sort of presence more powerful than me that the people in the territory swear fealty to. That is probably like the actual, you know, mayor or sheriff of this town. Like the people are grateful for Errol's support, but like they still have to like do the regular town shit. But I left a lot of blanks because I didn't know that much about what Dry River was, and I thought that Travis could help me fill in the gaps a little bit more. And also, mortals in the area are actively trying to revitalize local businesses and architecture.

Kind of like a Goonies-esque vibe where, like, I think this is just a residential area in the town that he tries to keep safe despite this, like, quiet war that is happening in Dry River for control. but on top of that also it's a town that is maybe changing a little bit and he is trying to like resist that change because I think the more it changes the less power and less control he has in that territory and all of his moves stem from that so like I'm like really good at hunting people down in my territory I'm really good at persuading people in my territory I actually roll there's different stats in the game and heart is what you usually roll with when you have to like persuade somebody. It's like your charisma. But there's also a stat called blood that is like the raw power in your blood, which

werewolves are like all about. And in your territory, you actually roll with that to persuade people. And so there's different... This is so good, diddo. Thanks, ma'am. Yeah, so there's different like benefits that he gets from being a werewolf politician when he's specifically in his neighborhood. And it's such a different way of doing business than he used to do it, right? He's not getting out there pressing the flesh and kissing babies. I don't think anybody would, you know, let him get that close to their baby at this point.

But it's, it is a way of interpreting these two things in a way that I think is going to be really, really cool. So that is... How do the people in his territory feel about him now that he's half... Yeah, well, I think they've only known him as half-wearwolf because he came to dry river. I think that he came to dry river as like... I think a dry river is a place where you can be as a, as a, as a, as a, as a, as a, uh, as a, uh, as a, uh, as a, uh, as a, uh, a warwolf or as a vampire, right? Just to, just to jump in real quick, just to give you and the listeners kind of the way I'm

envisioning the territory as a whole and how dry river fits in there. So I think about it a lot like Los Angeles, right? Where it's, Los Angeles is this gigantic city. And within it, you have like the valley and West Hollywood and Venice Beach. And you have all of these. individual neighborhoods that have within themselves, like their own local governments and their own kind of like they're, you know, the mayor of Hollywood and that kind of thing. And so dry river would be like Culver City. You know what I mean? Where it is the thing. And then Crescent

Territories like Los Angeles as a whole, right? So when you talk about your territory, yes, absolutely. You all do not live in Dry River, but Dry River exists within a territory and within a section of Crescent territory that I definitely think you have influence over. And his territory, I still have, I have not, like, nailed it down, but I think it's just the place where people live. I don't think it's, like, the business district. I don't think it's, like, the main, you know, political hub of the city. I think that he is, he is not, I think he is, so just like looking at his faction stats, it's basically across the board, like, okay. I think he doesn't, I don't think he is necessarily in gracious.

with the werewolf community because he's half werewolf. I don't think he's necessarily beloved by the human community outside of his territory because he's half human. Like, I think, I think that there's, I think he's kind of in between somewhere. And, like, that's the kind of stuff that I want to explore with him, this idea of, yeah, wherewolves are political and he is just now trying to learn what that, what that means as a former politician because he has these skills and he's still a very idealistic very good person. It's just there's there's he he's had to change the way he thinks about, um, about politics and

interpersonal relationships and how he is able to help the, the, the city in which he lives. And they will love him as long as the garbage gets picked up on time and the potholes. That's right. Well, I think that's, I think that's how he, I think that's how he joins up with the grace. Yeah, I think he, I think he joins up with the graces for this reason is he, is he, just sees the Grayson's as like, well, they're, they're trying to help. And so that's why I'm, that's why I'm here. This, this job got maybe a little bit too big just for him to do alone. And, but the Grayson's seem to have their shit in order and can, can, can, are doing some

good or not, if not good are helping to balance the city out and the territory out. Establish some kind of order. Yeah. So, did a run me through just on the basic levels like, look, demeanor, that kind of stuff, and then we'll do the intro questions and figure out your debts. And dad, I also realized we did not nail down your debts. We'll get back to that in a second. Yeah, so I went with mail, and then I want him to be a Latinx dude, which is, again, like, I want to, like, drive this home. Like, I do not want to, it would be kind of problematic if it was like he is Latinx. and also a big monstrous beast. That is like absolutely not what I am going for for this character, because I think that'd be very bad.

But just when I thought about this character being this sort of, you know, community leader and idealistic politician and sort of everything else about him, I sort of just envisioned him as Latinx. And then for clothing, I had baggy clothing, concealing clothing, dark clothing, dirty clothing. I went with concealing clothing. I'm imagining like a coat with some sort of hooded garment underneath it, which I don't, I'm not thinking of it as concealing and like he is embarrassed of being half transformed all the time, but rather like it helps him in certain situations where there may be, there people might have questions about, hey, like, why are you half, half werewolf, half human? where I don't think he minds answering those questions, but it might be a little bit more convenient when he's on, like, an investigation. Like, there may be times where it is beneficial to just kind of get and get out unnoticed sometimes. Not that he's a particularly stealthy character, but I think he likes having the option. And then for demeanor, there was aggressive, no, feral, no, violent, no, and then excitable, okay.

Okay, if it's not going to be the other three, sure, let's, I think he is probably pretty, a pretty excitable dude. And what I also really like about excitable compared to the other three is like excitable can apply in so many different ways because it can be like he's passionate about his community and he gets excited at the idea of like, you know, improving something, or it can be like he's just enthusiastic about whatever. It's a good kind of descriptor of someone who maybe reacts to a lot of things in a lot of positive, of excitable ways.

Yeah. Okay, so let me ask you some of the intro questions, right? How long have you been in this territory and with the Gracens? It sounds like kind of a lifelong territory thing? No, no, no, because remember, he, like moved here after his sort of botched attempt to shed his lycanthropy. I think he's only been in Dry River for like eight months or so feels right to me. Like, I think he's probably one of the-

Territory, just to keep, you know. down. Yes, yes. Sorry, sorry. And in that time, he has sort of started to work for the community and learned, or has at least started to learn, like, how he can, he can continue to be this, like, community leader and, you know, community supporter with his, with his sort of new, new half werewolf sort of thing that he's got on. So keeping that in mind, one of the questions is, what's the best thing about the change, but I think I'm going to change that a little bit to ask, what's the best thing that came out of the trying to shed the curse, trying to shed the genetic part of it. I mean, I like that what's the best thing of the change? Because if I'm talking mechanically,

he's got minus one heart, and that's like your charisma stat. So he maybe wasn't the best, like, he wasn't the most charismatic politician, right? But now he has like a new way of, doing things. And that new way actually works for him a lot better than the old way did. So I think in a lot of ways, like, he has learned a lot more about community and, um, and, and, and all that since he became a werewolf. So I think, I think, I think that's why he's kind of leaned into it. And that's why he's not like embarrassed of the change and not like any, anything like that. It's, it's, it is just a different, it's a different way of, of being a community leader that is actually kind of better.

And who is the most important person in the territory to you? I kind of left that question up to you, because I don't know about the politics of this town, but I still think he thinks of, like, the mayor or the governor of the territory or whoever's in charge here as the most important person. And he probably disagrees with a lot of their decisions. He's probably very opinionated about that stuff, but that's probably the answer to that. Oh, I like that. Because I like that as a general answer that then we can figure out more specific.

specifically as we play of just like he likes, he likes people who bring order to the territory and people who, you know, are not necessarily in control because there will be criminal organizations and, you know, business interests, but this idea of like social control, order, structure. Yeah. Yeah? Okay. What do you desperately need?

Um, I think, so again, like I wanted to push away from. I'm like he wanted to, also because like after talking about our characters, I don't want it to be the same as Justin's thing. Like he's not looking for a way to fix this because I don't think he sees it as something that's broken. I think for him, like his main drive is keeping his territory safe, which I think can be really interesting because there's a lot of stuff in the game about your territory changing and coming under these threats that you've established. Do you think it's fair to say then that he, because obviously he did at some point want to change it. Is it fair to say that he sort of learned a lesson from that about accepting who he is rather than trying to like what is is the botch transformation like something that changed it changed his mind about that? Yeah for sure for sure. Sort of accept who he was.

Yeah, I think absolutely. Not to put words in your mouth. No, I think that's a good way of putting it because I think he kind of now recognizes like, oh, if I was just still a werewolf that transformed the usual way that werewolves transformed. I would kind of slot more neatly into these, these like categories that would make it, politically speaking, probably easier to do what I want to do. But now that I'm here, like, this is what the situation is. And I have had to become comfortable with that, too. But to me, that's, like, kind of separate from this thing, which is, like, his main motivating

drive is his territory and keeping it safe because he wants to, he wants to do what he can, not just to like protect the people who live in his territory from whatever sort of struggles are happening in this city between the different factions, but also like the usual city stuff. Like dad mentioned the trash being taken out on time. Like, I think he does think about that stuff. And he wants to make sure that the, the territory and dry river are doing well and that his territory is benefiting from that. I also want to mention he has, he's good at like hunting and stuff because he does have like these wolf powers. and that's his drama move. Whenever I begin a hunt for someone,

I mark corruption. Basically, anytime that I, like, lean into my, my, like, powers or whatever, I, I, it does, it does sort of, uh, it taps into this, this thing that is kind of against his nature a little bit.

Um, that's not so much necessarily talking about, like, the political side of things. It's like his main jam, but anytime he does sort of need to push the limits a little bit of his, his wolf powers, um,

It sort of goes against his nature and he marks corruption. Okay, so, Justin, with Augustus, we established that there was a debt to the church, two debts to the church. And then I assume also a debt to, you said you were haunting Altizer. So there's probably a debt there. And then there's one more. Let me find it. Can you add debts as the story goes along? Oh, yes.

Deats are changing constantly. That's what it is. And then those are two. of your three, and then the other one is someone or someone's progenitor was involved in your death, they owe you a debt. Do you have, is there anything along the lines of Augustus' death that is blamed on someone else? Yeah, one of the mining companies, we were sort of squabbling over territory, and my belief is,

I don't have concrete proof of this, but my belief is that he had me killed. Okay, so maybe to, like, keep you quiet about it. They have an admitted fault. The finest, the finest cashew farming land in the area is also very rich in mineral deposits. Excellent. And he, and he wanted the land for himself, and he couldn't buy me out because I'm a bitter old man. Excellent, excellent. So there's, like, there was...

His name is Flint Chittles. Wait, that's the name? of the Flint chittles, you owe me big. Flint chittles. Perfect. Dad, tell me. Do you want to know something that we're, Travis? Uh-huh.

I just came up with that name. No. Can we do that? My I owe a debt to boop strongly. Yeah, hold on. Let me write it down. You guys probably thought I came up with that for a long time, but I just did it just now. Yeah, that's amazing.

If it means anything, I believe you, Justin. Thank you, Dad. Thank you for believing in me. In Wizard, your debts, your starting debts, are someone is helping you keep the demons at bay. You owe them a debt. Someone is your go-to when you get in trouble. You owe them two debts.

And you are helping someone keep a dangerous secret. They owe you a debt. All right, the go-to when I get into trouble is chint-flittles. Come on. Is it Flint-Chittles? No. Stay in your lane. Flint Chittles is...

Chint Fittles. No, Flint Chittles is mine. You can't also... You can't steal the... You can't make a parody of mine. It's not even on Tumblr yet, Mac. Oh, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay, I'll do the parody later. I think it would be more interesting if Michael... Now, I can't... I can't remember which one is mine. Flint Chittles or Chittles? I wrote it down. Okay, Michael, you're homunculus. Yeah, my haunted doll.

I think that Michael is the go-to when... she gets in trouble. Excellent. And she owes them two debt. And I think we've already kind of touched on that to say, like, Michael is your source of information. And so has already, like, you've already made this promise twice, you know? So, like, there's then the opportunity for more debts to be offered.

But we've already established that that is why he is so free with information to you because you owe two debts already. And I was thinking, I was, I don't know who the other two, but I was thinking, what if what if one either Augustus or Errol has a debt? Can I have a debt? Yes, absolutely. Well, what I'm saying is maybe, maybe. Hey, Dad, do you know the job that brought you to town?

What just a thought? What if I hired Gandy? To help, I was thinking to help Augustus. No, to investigate Flint Chittles. Oh, okay. So I can try to prove that he was the one who killed me. That's kind of, is that, that's kind of fun, isn't it? Yeah, I like that. Awesome. Yeah, I would love that. So that would be...

We'll put that in the first one. So you owe, you owe Augustus a debt. And then, are you keeping someone's terrible secret? Or if we wanted to say someone owes you a debt for some reason? I can answer that maybe with my debts. Maybe we can make this the same thing. Okay, so yeah, you go ahead. Yeah, I have, someone is hiding you from someone or something powerful. You owe them a debt. And I thought it could be cool to use that with Gandy through some sort of magical means because she has shielding magic. She is keeping my presence sort of off the books from somebody back in the old family maybe, back in the town where I'm from, where I started out that I kind of ran away from after things went south. And so for that reason, I actually... Okay, let me help out with this then. So let's say, because I've...

I have in my fiction, there is a kind of head of a criminal, magical, criminal organization known only as the Banshee. And you know nothing else about them. They are very, very secret. No one's ever met them and lived. But let's say that in trying to reverse the curse, as it were, Errol made a deal with the Banshee's organization. Yes, good.

And then didn't deliver. And that's why the halfway transformation. Yes, good. Yes. Good, and yes, because one of my debts is someone is living in your territory benefiting from your protection. They owe you a debt. And I think this would be the woman, a wizard, another wizard who tried this transformation, tried to cast this spell that went wrong, was probably a member of Banshees' former sort of clique and was excommunicated. And so I am trying to keep her hidden in my neighborhood.

her name is Boop Strongly. No, her name is, let me look at a random name generator. I liked Boop Strongly, but... How about Daria? Darya Cross. Okay. Darya Cross is her name. She was the one who tried to transform me, and it didn't work out.

But there's no bad blood. And so she owes me a debt because I am, I am sort of, as, as Gandhi is keeping me sort of hidden from the banshee, Daria is also, you know, here. Is that too snake-eating its own tail? No, no, no, no. I love this, because I was going to suggest the second one here is someone hired you for a job and you fucked it up. I think that's Augustus.

I think I was also hired by Augustus to investigate this. Maybe, and maybe that could, because you want this team to exist before we get into this story. Maybe that's what first brought us together. And the reason that Augustus doesn't know whether or not Flint was his killer or not is because I did something during the investigation that fucking ruined the whole thing. Okay, we can play with that more because I would love to explore later if you did that on purpose to save Flint Chittles' life. Like you knew that if Augustus could prove it, then the same might be dealt upon Flint Chittles.

Yes. So I owe Gandhi one debt. I owe Augustus two debts and Daria owes me one debt. So you see this being a 40 episode arc, I'm guessing. Hey, everybody, this is Griffin McRoy, your best friend, your werewolf president, and I'm here to read the ads because we forgot to record them while we're doing this setup episode. Sorry for skipping next week. I mentioned this on Twitter, but Justin and Sidney just had another baby,

and she's doing very well, and we're very, very happy for them and wanted to give juice a little time off for some paternity leave. I'm going to try to get through this quick so you can listen to the last few minutes of this episode. Stick around for a hot little piece of narration that Travis reads to set everything up, and we will see you again next week for the first episode of The Adventure Zone Dust. I want to tell you about the Writing Alchemy Podcast, which you can find at writingalchemy.net, or subscribe to Writing Alchemy on Stitcher or iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. The Writing Alchemy podcast includes fairy tales with marginalized characters and lively stories

that tackle serious topics while maintaining the whimsical magic and humor that makes fairy tales great. The Writing Alchemy podcast also includes unfamiliar heroes, a project in which disabled and mentally diverse people play tabletop role-playing games where their characters have disabilities and diverse minds. Check out Writing Alchemy at writingalchemy.net or subscribe on your favorite podcatcher. Are people still calling them podcatchers? I feel like I haven't heard that term in a while. Anyway, this podcast sounds fucking phenomenal. Go check them out. writingalchemy.net. I also want to tell you about the secrets of the cracken. Here's the description they've provided. When Captain Kate Mullenoo agreed to transport an ancient map,

she was thinking only of getting out of debt. Should I do like a fun, like narrator voice? Maybe. She didn't, no, that's weird. She didn't imagine she'd be chasing murderers, running from pirates, dodging sea monsters, and picking up strange but adorable runaways. The Secrets of the Cracken is a book for people who like elevators of their fantasy. Oh, you've Welcome home. Terry Pratchett, Firefly, and Cowboy Bebop, found families, and character-driven stories. I don't know if those are things inside the show or just like shit that I'm into right now. But anyway, it's available on all major platforms at bit.ly slash git sotk. That's bit.ly slash git sotk.

That's secret to the crack, and it sounds like a neat little book. That's it for the ads. Again, stick around for the last few minutes of this episode. and thank you for tweeting about the show using the Zonecast hashtag. We sure do appreciate it. You spread in the word. We don't pay to advertise the show at all. I think Travis is planning on naming some characters after people who send tweets with the Zonecast hashtag.

At least that's what he said in the setup episode. So get those tweets and you might end up as a character in the show or I guess an agency in the show. I don't know. I'm not running this one, gang. And thanks again to Maximum Fun for having us. Go to MaximumFund.org and check out all the great podcast there. You're just going to love them. If you want to hear more stuff that we do, go to Macroy Shows.

I think that is it. We will be back next week with the first proper episode of the Adventure Zone Dust. So we'll talk to you then. Bye. Okay. So I think all of that is a really great start. Well, I feel like can you give a two minute long sort of overview of the rules? Because we didn't even talk about the fact that there are basic moves that sort of cover all the actions.

If you listen to Amnesty, all that stuff is virtually the same. Yeah. Yeah, so there are basic moves, so they're also specific faction moves. You use an investigation or talking to people. And, you know, I think all of that will become clear when we play. I would rather use it in context because right now it would just be a lot of words. Yeah. A lot of hollow, empty words.

But I want to read the, I've written a thing that's like the lead up to and go with the action. So we can wrap up here. I'll start playing the theme music that I haven't written yet. right now. Welcome to Dry River. Back before the drought, used to call it Twin River. The town was settled on a big spit of land nestled between where the river split, and then flowed back in itself.

Of course, that was back when the river flowed. All that's left now is the dry bed, just a ravine, really. North and Southbridge used to be bustling with folks traveling west, who would stop and spend some time in our thriving little town. Now folks give Dry River a wide pass. They've heard stories. When the water flowed, people came. Business thrived and the fleshes, the fangs, and the fangs and the furs all lived peaceful.

Now every day gets a little worse. The fangs and the furs snarl at each other, waiting for the other to make the first move. The fleshes just keep their eyes low and hope to stay out of it all. The peace, if you can call it that, was barely holding. Then, tonight, we found Jeremiah Blackwale dead in the street. Jeremiah was the eldest of Joseph Blackwell. Blackwell Sr. is just about the most respected fang in town, not to mention the richest, thanks to the copper mine up north.

All the other fangs seem to look to him when it comes to matters. As if his eldest dying suddenly weren't trouble enough, it has every sign of an attack by one of the firs, Dylan Mathis. Now nobody seems to have seen the murder, but Nick Wendstad was leaded in the Sterling late last night and found Dylan hunched over Blackwell's body. Dylan's clothes soaked through with blood. The three of you work for the Grayson Agency. Grayson agents are detectives, bodyguards,

arbiters, enforcers, whatever the client needs. What they ain't is lawmen. Abigail Mathis, Dylan's mother and owner of the Silver Mine south of town, had hired Grayson's as arbiters, but didn't state in the telegram what it is you'd be handed. You had only just dropped your bags in your rooms above the Sterling when Deputy Rosa showed up to bring in the Sheriff Connors. When Conner's first brought Dylan in, he wouldn't shut up about his innocence.

Now he's keeping quiet. Waring. Abigail and Connors have agreed to bring y'all in on this to try to sort it out. It's midnight now. At 8 a.m., the whole town is going to be awake. Once they find out what's happening, all hell is going to break loose. You have eight hours. Good luck.

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